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If you are convinced communication in projects is essential,
if you believe motivated people are good for a project,
if you think that being able to “see” someone else’s point of view improves respect and communication,
if you have a feeling that there must be something useful for you in “other” approaches and techniques…

photo credit: jans canon

… welcome to my blog.

Sorry, I don’t have Final Answers. We are discussing People. Difficult.

Even worse. I am trying to train/explain People About People.

After 30 months on the blog, I found that explaining “The Thing That A Project Manager Does To Move His Project In The Proper Direction, Related To People“ is mostly about creating stories and pictures, methaphores and small models. It’s the kind of information that sticks.

And now the purpose of this post.

A couple of weeks ago I talked about Leaders And Followers:

“For example, a couple of years ago a blog about Project Management was almost alone in its category. You could have quite a following with your blog. As more and more blogs come into existence about this topic, it gets harder and harder to build up your audience. Lot of leaders and not enough followers. An imbalance between supply and demand of information. … In the case of Project Management blogs, you are trying to differentiate yourself. Looking for a different or more specific niche. Change the medium by adding video, audio and presentations. Looking for your fresh, Blue Ocean.”

That’s true. But. There is also another, but similar, way of looking at this.

By my choice of topics, choice of words and use of images I am automatically selecting my Blue Ocean. By basically being me, people opt in or opt out.

Havi Brooks has duck, called Selma. She also has a terrific blog called Fluent Self.

She explains:

“I have a duck. I am a biggified blah blah expert whose business partner is a duck.
People who get it and think it’s cool are totally in.
People who think it’s stupid, or suspect that she’s — ewwwwwwwwwww — some kind of marketing ploy, are out. But not because I have to ask them to leave or anything. They just self-select out. They don’t stick.
Having red-velvet-rope Selma around (and let’s be honest, I don’t do anything without her) turns out to be a great way to help people find their way in or out.”

It’s this whole labeling and group affiliation thing again.

But only now you are creating your own group and the labels that are associated with it.

If you missed the whole labeling thing:

“We radiate to the outside world our icons like Gantt Charts, two-digits precise risk assessments, large documents that seems to cover every little aspect imaginable. If you are a member of our group, you ooze control. I once told my wife that I was “unable to comply to her request”. She smacked me on the head telling me that she was not my customer. So, I assume that we also have a specific language that sets us apart from other mortals. By adopting our symbols, our rituals and speak newbie PMs try to affiliate themselves with the group called Professional Project Managers.

As an identity is how we see ourselves within the ultimate large group of humans, it not something that is to be seen an an individual level, it is a group thing. Without groups, the whole concept of identity wouldn’t make sense. We are shaping identities by combining three mechanisms: categorization, identification and comparison. Although broadminded people like to think they do not put everyone in boxes, everyone does. We always put people in categories, we label them. This is done by looking for signs that we associate with a certain group. These signs are the mentioned use of icons, rituals or speak. To be able to associate yourself with a group, we first have to divide society into groups. Identification is the part where you affiliate yourself with a group.”

So, the purpose of the opening of this post…

To select the people that can use the information or can contribute to the discussion.

To make sure you know I have no Final Answers. I can lead the search though. I can offer you a home for your own search.

Although, I think just walking around with a duck is easier. Less work.